Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Plan to Raise Judges’ Retirement Age to 80 Is Rejected - NYTimes.com

In the end I cast the partisan vote, rather than lock in the Pataki legacy on the New York Court of Appeals. I refer to that court as "the plaintiffs graveyard". They tossed the 1993 WTC bombing cases 4-3 citing sovereign immunity. The Port Authority had been told by Scotland Yard that its complete lack of security at the WTC parking deck was absurd. But they went for the nickels and dimes. The Court of Appeals Republican majority found the PA immune - it was a police decision, not a property management decision. Chief Judge Lippman dissented.
I oppose the New Jersey Constitution's mandatory judicial retirement age of 70 - and have editorialized in favor of 75. But 80?? Not so sure about that, so I cast the ideological vote against the measure. - gwcPlan to Raise Judges’ Retirement Age to 80 Is Rejected - NYTimes.com:
by James C. McKinley, Jr.

An amendment to the New York State Constitution raising the mandatory retirement age to 80 for judges on the Supreme Court and on the Court of Appeals went down in defeat in a referendum on Tuesday, handing Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman a stinging rebuke.

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With 83 percent of precincts reporting, the measure, Proposition 6, was opposed by 61 percent of the voters, while 39 percent were in favor.

Had it passed, the measure would have limited the ability of the governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, to shape the state’s highest court, lengthening the terms of two Republican judges on the Court of Appeals as well as extending the tenure of Judge Lippman, who turns 70 in 2015.

The governor had quietly opposed the measure in the Legislature and lobbied editorial boards to urge people to vote no, while Judge Lippman and many of the state’s most influential jurists and trial lawyers had rallied behind it.